Over the past couple of years, New York rockers Parquet Courts have earned a reputation in indie music circles for their own brand of existentially tortured punk, a special blend of cynical introspection and wry self-awareness. Their lyrics often focus on the unique loneliness of twentysomethings in the 21st century, people whose lives are increasingly cordoned off by anxiety, corporate imagery and the deceptively transparent walls of social media.
Their sound is likewise difficult to pin down, and deliberately so — while the clearest musical antecedent for their debut album, 2012’s Light Up Gold, might be ‘90s slacker heroes Pavement, subsequent releases have pushed their sound in vastly different directions: last year’s critically acclaimed Sunbathing Animal featured almost no choruses or hooks, while their other album released in 2014, Content Nausea (which was credited to the phonetically spelled ‘Parkay Quarts,’ if you were wondering how to pronounce it) displayed clear influences of electronic and country music. The band’s next release, a live album recorded at Jack White’s Third Man Records in Nashville, hits shelves on March 3, and like many of their live performances, promises to alternate between frantic noisiness and introspective emotion.
When Weld caught up with the band’s co-frontman Austin Brown (who, along with Andrew Savage, writes the band’s music, plays guitar and sings), Parquet Courts were in the midst of kicking off their 2015 tour, which will bring them the Birmingham’s own Bottletree Cafe on Feb. 4. In keeping with the lyrics from the Brown-penned “Master of My Craft” — “A minute of your time? / Forget about it!” — the conversation was brief, but focused on how the band defines itself and their plans for the new year.
Since the success of Light Up Gold and its ensuing critical adoration, the media burdened the band with a smattering of buzzwords and genre descriptors (“slacker rockers,” “rock revivalists”) most of which the band seemed fairly uncomfortable with accepting. When asked if there is an aesthetic label that fits Parquet Courts’ sound, Brown’s answer is straightforward: “I’ve always been pretty comfortable with ‘rock band,’” he deadpans, hinting, perhaps, that hyper-specific genre descriptors are just the kind of constrictive language that the band is working to rebel against.
This forthright, workmanlike approach to the band’s music is reflected in their work ethic. 2014, for instance, was a very productive year for the band: they released two full-length records, recorded their upcoming live album and toured extensively in Europe.
According to Brown, there’s no end in sight for the band’s prolific streak in the coming year. “2015 obviously just began, and although we don’t have a concrete plan, I imagine more touring and recording,” he says. “On top of that, Andrew [Savage, the band’s co-frontman who also creates all of the band’s album covers] has an art show or two in the works, I did a soundtrack for a short film by Joseph Ettinger that’s up for festivals, Sean [Yeaton, the band’s bassist] just had a baby boy, and Max [Savage, the band’s drummer] is continuing his quest to visit every pizza place in New York City.”
Though Brown declines to discuss his band’s Southern roots — the band, excluding Yeaton, hail from Texas, and their discography features a few scattered country-tinted numbers like the racial tension narrative “Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth” — he mentions that he’s recently been enjoying Nikki Sudden’s largely forgotten 1986 album Texas. Might this affinity with an English underground rocker musically exploring the American South from an outsider’s perspective imply that Parquet Courts are seeking similar distance from any one particular regional identity?
It’s possible, but it’s probably best not to push it: if there is one thing Parquet Courts resent, it’s being misunderstood. Brown’s tone becomes bitingly acerbic — or perhaps just exasperated — when discussing those who don’t understand the band’s approach, or worse, how to pronounce their name. “It is surprising when people are confused by the name’s pronunciation,” he admits, but notes that the band’s Parkay Quarts pseudonym is “typically used to signify a conceptual difference [between] the albums.”
“But people are often confused by that as well,” he says. “So go figure.”
When Brown and the rest of Parquet Courts arrive in Birmingham early next month, they will find that there are plenty of people in the city who understand and enjoy the band’s aesthetic: their show at Bottletree Cafe is one of the city’s most anticipated musical moments of the year so far.
That’s certainly the case for the folks at Good People Brewing Company, who are expressing their enthusiasm for the band with three Parquet Courts-inspired specialty beers that will be available the night of the show.
“We listen to a lot of different bands during our workday, but we have been listening to Parquet Courts a lot more than most,” says brewer Stefano Daneri. “Parquet Courts is the type of band that pushes the envelope on creativity, so we wanted to push the envelope and capture their emotion and sound in a pint-sized glass.”
These limited-edition beers, collaborations with Bottletree Cafe which “will mostly likely not make it into the regular rotation with the other beers in [Good People’s] catalog,” include the punningly titled Parquet Schwarz (“a dark lager [with] light hints of chocolate and coffee”), Master My Craft Lager (“our take on a pilsner, which was converted from a home-brew recipe to a large-scale mastered lager”), and Light Up Golden Ale (“a golden ale that balances a beautiful golden color with a pleasant hop profile ranging from spicy to citrusy”).
“The Bottletree is a-one-of-a kind place,” says Daneri, “and we wanted to make the event even more special with some unique beers for a band that we think is cool.”
Parquet Courts will perform at Bottletree Cafe on Wednesday, Feb. 4. NOTS and Moodkiller will open. Doors will open at 8 p.m.; the show begins at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12. For more information, visit thebottletree.com.